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Formula One: HRTs fail to qualify under 107 percent rule

March 16, 2012

Pedro de la Rosa won't be allowed to start the Australian Grand Prix, and neither will his HRT teammate Narain Karthikeyan. The pair didn't drive fast enough in qualifying and were in violation of Formula One's 107 percent rule. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Neither Pedro de la Rosa nor Narain Karthikeyan will be allowed to start the Australian Gran Prix under Formula One's 107 percent rule, despite the HRT team requesting dispensation from the FIA for “exceptional circumstances.”

The 107 percent rules states that drivers must set a lap with 107 percent of the fastest time.

After running very few laps in practice both drivers managed to record respectable times--de la Rosa was just more than 1.2 seconds outside the margin. But that wasn't deemed to be good enough, and the FIA stuck to its own rule.

It didn't help that both drivers were involved in impeding incidents in Q1, both picking up reprimands for their troubles.

“It's obvious that we still have a lot of work ahead to be where we should be and even more to improve on that potential, but today was the first time we were able to complete both sessions with both cars and that is positive," team boss Luis Pérez Sala said. “Although today wasn't the result we desired, we've fixed some of yesterday's issues and were able to spot out the weakest points. Now we can work on them and find a solution. These solutions aren't immediate but with every day and every session we're in better conditions. Time is precious and next week in Malaysia we'll have another four sessions to prepare for the next race.”